


Start With Tonight

by cowboykylux



Series: Mind & Soul 'Verse [12]
Category: Marriage Story (2019)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Extramarital Affairs, F/M, Pre-Canon, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:06:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25560295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cowboykylux/pseuds/cowboykylux
Summary: You never stay, it's too dangerous, especially when Henry's home. But one night Charlie asks if you'll stay anyway, and for the first time, you do.
Relationships: Charlie Barber/Reader, Charlie Barber/You
Series: Mind & Soul 'Verse [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1564099
Kudos: 10





	Start With Tonight

“Can’t you stay a little longer?” Charlie asks, when the story has finished and Henry as been tucked in, when you’ve kissed the top of his head in a comforting gesture, when you’ve said goodnight.

You’re babysitting for Charlie, the way you always do when he’s working late, when he’s got no one else he can trust. He’s standing by the door, leaning against it, an open drink in hand. He’s watching you, watching you with those big sad eyes, because he knows that when you say goodnight you’re really saying goodbye.

You don’t want to leave, you don’t. But it’s the best thing for everyone, right now. Charlie’s married, he’s a married man and Henry is his son. Never mind that Henry asked for you specifically to read the bedtime story, never mind. You didn’t want to step on toes, didn’t want to overstep boundaries – you were not Nicole.

Henry didn’t want Nicole.

Neither does Charlie.

He’s standing by the door and he’s offering you a hand, asking you to take it with the silent plea of his eyes, with the pained crook of his smile. He’s smiling less and less these days, and it breaks your heart. You wonder when the divorce will start, when the battle will begin. You hope it’s soon, if only to give him some relief, some reprieve, your Charlie.

You take his hand, and he asks again, asks you if you’d stay.

You’re surprised by that, if you’re being honest. You had an agreement, a promise to keep to one another that there would be no suspicions of this affair, no evidence for this tryst you share. He only asks you to stay when Henry is whisked away to California, when there can be no awkward questions about where you slept or why you spent the night.

But tonight that all seems to fly out the window, as you hold his hand, as he leads you to his bedroom, as he puts the drink down on a coaster atop the dresser and cups your cheeks in his bottle-chilled hands.

“Won’t you stay?” He asks, and he’s already licking his lips, already leaning down to kiss you, hungry in that slow sensual way of his. 

“Of course,” You breathe against his tongue, eyes closed as you rub your noses together, as his eyelashes tickle your cheek. “As long as you want me.”

“I’m afraid that’ll be forever.” Charlie whispers, and you smile, and he smiles, and you’re filled with a small sense of pride, of victory, that you can coax such an expression out of him.

You take a step back only far enough to undo the buttons of your blouse, his hands like magnets as he helps you out of your clothes. You only get so far before those hands are wandering, grasping grabbing cradling your flesh, and you look at him through long lashes of your own when you hum out a kiss and tell him,

“Let’s start with tonight.”


End file.
